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When Bobby Ryan scored his first goal as an Ottawa Senator in Winnipeg on Sunday, Bryan Murray knew exactly what he wanted to say to Ryan after the game.

“I said, ‘What took you so long?” chuckled Murray. “Why did you wait until the second period?”

They are, of course, anxious to turn the page in the nation’s capital these days, move on from the Daniel Alfredsson Era, which came close to including a Stanley Cup in 2007, and on to that which lies beyond.

It’ll be awkward to have Alfredsson as a rival player in Detroit, of course, particularly with the Red Wings now in the same division as the Sens. But when it comes to the Battle of Ontario, which resumes Thursday night with an exhibition tilt in Ottawa, perhaps the Senators won’t mind having their captain booed every time he touches the puck.

In Ottawa, that is.

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Ryan won’t inspire that same response from Leaf fans that crowd into Ottawa’s rink, at least not right away, and neither will new Ottawa captain Jason Spezza. So the rivalry, somewhat muted in recent years, will require new heroes and villains before it can really find its feet again.

Maybe that will be this season, maybe not, which means it may or may not include Murray, still an NHL general manager at age 70, but uncertain about his future beyond the expiration of his current contract at the conclusion of this season.

“I’m not sure where I’m heading right now,” said Murray, who lost his mother last week and thinks often about spending more time in the Denver area visiting his two grandchildren.

“When I came to Ottawa (in 2004) I just wanted to coach for a couple of years and then retire. Now, I’m just not sure.”

There are many moving parts to the Ottawa hockey story this season, and Ryan and Murray are just two of them. Spezza is another, and like Murray it’s astounding how his reputation has rebounded in the past two seasons after the Senators found they couldn’t give him away if they wanted to several summers ago because of his contract.

Murray, for his part, was set to be tarred and feathered when the Sens appeared to be going nowhere three years ago. But a change of direction and some outstanding work at the draft table has helped Ottawa stay more than competitive, and the hiring of Paul MacLean has created a new team attitude and philosophy.

Last year, without players like Spezza and Erik Karlsson for long stretches, the Sens became a team renowned for work ethic and grit, certainly something that wasn’t the team’s calling card when they were getting whipped by the Leafs in the post-season in the early years of the new century.

“The enthusiasm never died last season,” said Murray. “Can we recreate that this season? I think we can.”

The obstacles for Ottawa, meanwhile, remain to replace the professionalism of Alfredsson and to adapt to the tightened economic strings that owner Eugene Melnyk has attached to the hockey operation.

Melnyk has said publicly the team is losing $9 million to $10 million per season, and coupled with his own financial challenges and inability (so far) to convince Ottawa politicians to help him secure a casino licence to provide new revenues for the Senators, that has meant the team won’t be anywhere near the $64.3 million NHL salary lid this season.

Instead, the club will spend something in the neighbourhood of $51 million, making the Sens one of the lowest-spending teams in the NHL this season. After two lockouts and the establishment of a league-wide salary cap system, the Senators have emerged as economically challenged as they ever were under the old system.

The Sens aren’t about to be moved and they’re not for sale, but once again they are the low-spending franchise battling their big-money provincial cousins to the south.

“I’m not worried about the future of the team, but I just spend the cash. It’s not mine,” said Murray. “This team works. We’ll make it work.

“As long as we’re competitive, the building will be full. Whether that will be enough, I don’t know.”

Curtis Lazar and Shane Prince are two youngsters who have shone at camp already this fall for Ottawa, and the team’s ability to draft exceptionally well in recent years is, really, what has allowed it to be as competitive as it has been.

Alfredsson, however, was always there as a leader and irreplaceable experience. Now, with a tight budget — that may have been part of what motivated Alfredsson to move on — and a challenging new division, the Sens will have to prove that Spezza, Chris Neil, Chris Phillips and Marc Methot can provide the same internal combustion the former captain did.

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